Students in the market for organic foods in State College have several options, as well as the opportunity to work in exchange for these foods downtown and in the surrounding area.

The Organic Market Co-Op, 209 W. Calder Way, houses only organic produce and other vegetarian friendly items.

When food is considered organic, it is completely free of chemical fertilizers, the market's main facilitator, Joe Shannon, said.

"Some fertilizers are organic," Shannon said. "But it's not just how you grow the food. Exposure to chemicals happens in the air, [and] what's in the soil, which also has to be free of chemicals."

Shannon said the market sells pure food, which means that no contamination with other non-organic food happens.

Shannon brings in most of his produce from non-local retailers. His stock includes peppers grown in Holland and zucchini grown in New Zealand.

"I don't get any food from local farmers for the store because they either don't grow enough for me to buy, or they don't grow it at all because of competition with other markets," Shannon said.

Wegman's Food Markets, 345 Lowes Blvd., also has an organic section in addition to their other produce.

Produce manager of Wegman's, Ray Craighead, said the store has an all-organic section.

"We have all our organic stuff in a separate case, specified organic," Craighead said.

"We have a separate bay out back, and it is all handled separately," Craighead added.

He said the store's organic section is large because of demand for such produce.

"People have been asking for organic produce a lot, which is why we had to increase the size of our section," Craighead said. "People who grow their own organic food but don't have a certain kind have also asked about it."

Shannon's store works on the basis of a co-operative. Students are able to volunteer their time to work at the store and are then compensated with products from the store.

"During the summer we have about 100 volunteers," Shannon said. "When fall comes we have up to 400. They volunteer about two to three hours a week."

Laura Silver, who is the director of Citizens for a Progressive Centre County said working at a co-operative is a good idea for students who can't afford to buy food all the time.

"Co-ops provide valuable service to students who want to purchase such foods but often can't afford to, so they work in exchange for food."

Shannon said organic farming started with people's response to improper farming practices.

"Soil supplies dwindled in the '40s and '50s due to mono-soiling and stripping the soil with fertilizing," Shannon said. "People tried to reclaim the stripped soil, and the organic movement grew out of this."

Shannon said such soil reclamation, which involves lining the soil by hydrating and baking it in furnaces, was done along Benner Pike.

Among other issues, Silver's organization is trying to organize co-operatives as well.

Penn State professor Tonia Slawecki, who is also the director of the Center for Sustainability, said proper care of the soil has to be taken into account to continue to grow, not just organic food, but all kinds of foods.

"The Center for Sustainability focuses on green building design, healthy community layouts, personal health and sustainable agriculture," Slawecki said. "We're interested in long-term sustainability of soil."

The center is currently conducting a research project on a site eight and a half acres off Porter Road, Slawecki said.

"We're using bio-intensive mini-farming, which helps to build soil," Slawecki said. "Our project is to grow a diet that includes all the caloric and nutritional requirements for one person on a vegan diet. This requires less than 4,000 square feet per person."

Slawecki said a typical American diet, which includes meat, requires 20,000 to 40,000 square feet per person, which takes into account growing feed for live stock.

She said topsoil loss, which depletes the kind of soil needed for farming, makes an area of land difficult to use for growing.

Slawecki teaches a course, Science, Technology and Society 497D/597D (Projects in Sustainable Living), where research on soil sustainability is conducted.